“The chareidi tzibur does not understand the existential threat to its children and education system” states Rav Yisrael Eichler as Yahadut HaTorah continues efforts to attract voters amid less than encouraging polls. Eichler last week stated that Yahadut Hatorah must get seven seats in the 19th Knesset, explaining if they have less, it is likely the chareidi party will not be invited to join the coalition, or even if it joins, it will lack the clout to makes demands vis-à-vis efforts to prevent the induction of chareidim into the IDF. He is trying to scare voters into coming to the polls on Election Day and casting a ballot for Yahadut Hatorah, explaining that if the party is too weak, there will be an existential threat to chareidi talmidei Torah and yeshivos.
“There is a war taking place over election ballots. If we fail, we will have to fight in the streets for our right to study Torah and educate our children in talmidei Torah and yeshivos. This is even before we have an apartment [or address] discrimination against us in the workplace” stated Eichler in a Bnei Brak election event.
Eichler is painting an ominous picture in his effort to persuade voters to vote Gimmel, warning that if they don’t achieve the required results, the ramifications for the chareidi tzibur may be devastating. He drew an analogy from Stalin and the closure of churches in the former USSR.
“Today, our situation is far worse than during the days of Ben-Gurion, who understood there cannot be a Jewish nation without yeshivos. Today, like in Russia, the right and left have joined forces to combat and uproot chareidi education and to deny us the right to live as Jews in our Holy Land. They seek the souls of the young chareidim to distance them from the religion of their ancestors.”
Eichler blames those who are not voting, warning “they will be responsible as they begin arresting Jews who threaten the secular rule, as they try to draft talmidim and close yeshivos.”
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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5 Responses
Charadi way of life? This is something new. The way of life of a religious Jew was always to work honestly for his living and study and pray; it was not to hide out in the study halls for fear of going out to work.
Something is seriously wrong here: if after 12 to 15 years a younger man can not be trusted to go out into the world to make a living, then the educational system should be examined.
Jews have always dealt with the outside world and lived with it and balanced their love and fear of G-d with the need to honestly support their families. Even the Gemora praises the man who lives by the honest work of his own hands.
So will the Hareidim play their ultimate “trump” card – refuse to accept zionist money, boycott zionist institutions, and open direct negotiations with the Muslims (as R. Sonnefeld did, and which ended with the De Haan assassination). The Israeli Hareidim have to chose between being Hareidi or being part of the zionist world. It’s a “yes-no” questions that everyone has been avoiding since 1949, and it is now getting asked? The hilonim have softened up the Hareidim with 60 years of benefits to show why they should be part of the zionist state, and now they are presenting the bill. They paid the fiddler, they now get to call the tune, we have to decide whether or not to dance to their tune.
“and to deny us the right to live as Jews in our Holy Land”
Strong statements on the eve of the elections!
Just shows that to get elected, saying anything is muttar. Even sheker gamur. Why will yeshivos be closed down if chareidim are drafted? Noone has ever answered my question about this. Even if every chareidi boy ages 17-20 were drafted (which they would not be, as there would be plenty of exemptions), what about every single other person learning in that yeshiva? What, anyone who is over 20 and learns offers no protection to E”Y? Their learning counts for nothing??
And why aren’t hesder yeshivos being closed down???
The fact that Yahadus Hatorah can barely muster 6 seats in the Knesset despite a boom in the chareidi population is a testament to the ineffectiveness of some of its political leaders.
The inflamed rhetoric of MK Eichler only turns off reasonable people. Claiming that the Chareidi lifestyle is at existential risk or that the situation in Eretz Yisrael is akin to the situation in Stalinist Russia is absurd.